Day 11 – Saturday 8^th September. Woke up to one of those damp misty mornings and managed to capture the spider’s web at the back of the boat. What a shame to have to set off and destroy such work.

Brigid started off working the locks but as we got into Stoke they started getting heavier so we swopped roles.

Beside the canal are the remains of old potteries, all sad and lonely now that they are no longer in use.

We had a little problem through one of the locks where a low bridge tried to take the funnel off! It now resides at a jaunty angle and will need some TLC when we get back to base. Nothing can be done while we are on the move and it doesn’t affect the running of the boat. It was a shame we didn’t want to stop after getting to the summit because Jesse Shirley’s Etruscan Bone & Flint Mill was operating under steam and I just love steam engines. However, we wanted to push on so that we could get through Harecastle Tunnel before they closed for the night.

There is always a queuing system for the tunnel and we had a wait of about 35 minutes before we could go through. We were led through some basic safety measures before setting off, one of which was to ensure we had a working horn and light. The light was OK and the horn (luckily) gave off one blast before refusing to work at all. Luckily the tunnel keeper heard the one toot and seemed satisfied. Oddly enough, later in the day when I tried again, just for fun, it worked a treat. Harecastle Tunnel is approx. 1¾ miles long and once you are inside they shut the doors at one end and switch on extractor fans to remove all diesel fumes, etc. This means that you are in total darkness for most of the time – you can just about see a glimmer of light in the far distance which is the open end of the tunnel. In the middle the tunnel dips and you have to duck to avoid hitting the roof – all very well if you can see but in near pitch darkness, not much fun. Having said that, I thoroughly enjoyed it and can’t wait for the return trip. After Harecastle we turned off on to the Macclesfield Canal, through a stop lock with a 1 foot drop, a measure introduced by the canal companies to conserve water in the separate systems. We then moored for the night at Scholar Green and had supper at The Bleeding Wolf Pub.

So called because King John was saved from a wolf by a keeper and as a reward he was given as much land as he could walk in a week. The keeper established the first pub of that name on the spot where he killed the wolf. We were only going to suss out the pub as a possible place to eat but we found out that there was going to be a birthday party later on with live entertainment. We weren’t up to that so we sat straight down and had an early supper instead. The meal was excellent and the portions were well up to Pleshey standard – far too much! After that, back to Polgara and then feet up to listen to the Last Night of the Proms – couldn’t watch it on the TV as signal very poor where we were.